Diane von Furstenberg

Team DVF had a brainstorming session about a month ago. At a showroom appointment today, she said they came up with three terms that defined the company: effortless, sexy, and on-the-go. "If you can't put it in a little bag, it's not on-brand." Walking through the collection, von Furstenberg pointed to a new take on her iconic wrap dress, featuring a traditional jersey bodice and a woven skirt with a bit more body than the jersey. The women in her office have a thing for flared skirts, which gave her the idea. That, and she liked the notion of a dress that looks like separates—in this case, a python-print top and a contrasting snakeskin-patterned skirt. "I think it's going to be our number-one seller," she remarked.

Von Furstenberg has never been short on confidence, and parting ways with her former creative director Yvan Mispelaere seems only to have given her more of it. More so than ever, the lineup was a reflection of her own wardrobe: primarily dresses, plenty of prints, and an emphasis on graphic black-and-white. Many of the above-the-knee frocks were engineered with seaming details, lace insets at the ribs, or strategically placed patterns—all designed to highlight the positive. "Is this not a friend in your closet forever?" she asked, pointing out one or another of them. Rounding out the mix were true separates—silk button-downs, high-waisted pencil skirts, cigarette pants, a cardigan coat. The blue-and-green optical prints on a crisp shirt and matching trousers didn't quite feel as on-brand as the rest; still, this was a sharp DVF outing.